A Havlat-Niemi-Handzus update — plus one of Todd McLellan’s messages at today’s team meeting

A not-too-eventful start of training camp today. The usual fitness and medical tests, the annual photo shoot, some open ice that a dozen or so players took advantage of — and then it was off to HP Pavilion for a team meeting that’s occurring right about now.

A few personnel updates first.

Here are Todd McLellan’s thoughts on Martin Havlat’s progress in recovering from shoulder surgery last May.

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“We’re not in a situation now where we’ve got to push him into playing. The health and the confidence he has is the most important thing right now.

“He’s skating, he looks good, he looks like he’s in excellent condition. He’s shooting the puck. It’s just got to get a little bit stronger before we run any type of risk with him in physical play.

“Is he skating tomorrow in training camp? Yep. He’ll participate in a lot of training camp. It’s just that we have to be careful with him.”

The other Sharks regular listed as day-to-day at this point is Antti Niemi and we talked briefly.

I figured I didn’t really want to ask him where that cyst was that he had removed and he indicated that was probably a good idea.

But he did say that he would be back on the ice sooner rather than later.

“Feels great,” the goalie said. “Shouldn’t be too many days, but we go day-to-day.”

And he says he isn’t worried at all about being good to go for the regular season.

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One last personnel matter. Mikhal Handzus is flying to San Jose today from Slovakia, where he attended Thursday’s funeral for longtime friend and teammate Pavol Demitra.

McLellan said, however, that it hasn’t been determined yet how quickly Handzus will be out on the ice.

“We all know what it felt like flying over from Europe last year,” the coach said. “I think he’ll want to be around his teammates for the first few days, but we also have to be cognizant of what he’s gone through and the timing.

“We will sit down and get to know each other here and figure out what’s best for him,” McLellan said. “And he’ll have some input into that.”

*****One of McLellan’s messages to his players at that meeting taking place right now is a pretty direct one: No way can this season’s start mirror the sluggish opening of a year ago.

If you’ll recall, the Sharks were buried in the Western Conference standings in mid-January, five points out of a playoff spot, before the trades and strong finish that propelled them to the No. 2 seed. That push, the theory goes, didn’t leave enough gas in the tank for the playoff drive that followed.

“It’s unacceptable for a group such as ours to not commit and be all-in,” McLellan said. “We have a responsibility to each other, to our organization and to our fans to give everything we have every night.

“And if that means blocking a shot in Game 1 and having a lump on your foot for a while, you block the shot in Game 1 and you deal with the lump,” he continued. “That’s how it has to be.”

Training camp’s first on-ice practice begins at 9 a.m. Saturday and will be spread over two of the four rinks at Sharks ice. It’s open to the public, though crowd size is limited.

One more player was sent home today — tryout Scooter Vaughn, who plays college hockey at Michigan — and, if my counting skills are accurate, that leaves 55 participants who will start camp divided into two groups.

David Pollak

David Pollak has been following the NHL forever and at the Mercury News as an editor or reporter since 1987. For almost a decade he wrote about the Sharks as the paper's Fan in the Stands before joining the sports department in 2001. He became the Sharks beat writer before the 2007-08 season and began this blog at that time. You can also follow him on Twitter at @PollakOnSharks.

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